Marin Readers' Forum for Jan. 6

Thank you for the remarkable story on Dec. 24 about the Bosnia war refugees who found a home and employment at the Marin Jewish Community Center.

Many members, myself included, had no idea that these staff members had fled Bosnia surviving the "ethnic cleansing" by Serbia forces. Five Muslim and Catholic refugees were able to find employment at the JCC and rebuild their lives here in Marin County.

Although I was raised Buddhist, I am a member of the JCC and know just enough about Judaism to understand that this act of compassion (karuna in Buddhism) is tikkun olam, healing the world.

Just imagine if we all began 2014 with setting the heart's intention with tikkun olam.

Rather than addressing important questions around impact on soon-to-be rationed water, schools and taxes, he suggests that I believe "there is no need to plan for anything.".

Mr. Belleto, like his Sustainable San Rafael counterpart Bill Carney, appears to support planning for unsupportable high-density growth, inflicting dozens of WinCup developments upon Marin along with desalination plants, traffic, schools and tax impact.

Fueled by profits, developers will gladly embrace Mr. Belleto's plans to urbanize Marin — but only if we allow them.

Slow-growth Marin need only plan for and accommodate just 1,740 new units in the next 25 years (state Department of Finance projections are for 4,543 new residents and the U.S. Census average is 2.61 residents per household).

We can achieve this without more high-density developments such as the one under construction at the former WinCup site in Corte Madera.

Instead, the Association of Bay Area Governments should relax its rules on second units and building conversions.

Assemblyman Marc Levine needs to succeed in the state Legislature and have Marin more accurately defined as "suburban" and not "urban" — reducing the density requirements being imposed upon us.

As demonstrated by WinCup, Marin needs to stand up to preserve its small-town character, not let itself be overrun by those who would envision Marin becoming more like the cities in the East Bay or South Bay.